Airtex Property Value Slashed

The hits just keep on coming.

The Illinois State Property Tax Review Board this week further reduced the property tax assessment of Airtex Products. Over the last two years, the value of the former Fairfield manufacturing facility has dropped from a high of nine million dollars….to two-and-a-half million.

So, for a moment, forget about TIF------the schools, the library, the ambulance service, the college, the park district, all have seen the Airtex property tax bill drop 72-percent in a very short period of time.

To further get your head around this news….That’s about a ten percent drop in the entire tax assessment inside Fairfield.

Let me throw some kerosene on the fire. Airtex once was the biggest user of the city’s municipal electric capacity. Not anymore. The nine employees left do not manufacture anything other than resumes.

Now do you understand…..we must use the money in TIF for new employment in Fairfield. Already, every taxing body in the city will have to boost their tax levies to make up for the lost Airtex tax money…and our electric bills----which are already way too high----are going to go higher still.

The cows are coming home. We are seeing the impact of the loss of a major employer and we are doing relatively little….if anything….to find a replacement.

Look. Airtex doesn’t want to pay the taxes on the property they have despite the fact that its value has plummeted. They are a motivated seller. Now we just need to find a motivated buyer….One who can put jobs in Fairfield.

Use the TIF money. Make somebody an offer they can’t refuse.